Comments on: Being the ‘indispensable nation’ is killing American democracyhttp://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/10/20/obama-tests-u-s-democracy-by-waging-an-empires-continuous-wars/
Thu, 21 Jul 2016 07:57:19 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.5By: Gclanhttp://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/10/20/obama-tests-u-s-democracy-by-waging-an-empires-continuous-wars/#comment-95824
Mon, 27 Oct 2014 18:57:48 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/?p=35165#comment-95824I certainly wish that this author and many others would quit referring to Mr. Obama as a “Professor”, as he was no such thing. The proper term would be either a “Lecturer” or “Senior Lecturer”, much further down the academic food chain than “Professor”.
]]>By: DLNYhttp://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/10/20/obama-tests-u-s-democracy-by-waging-an-empires-continuous-wars/#comment-95799
Mon, 27 Oct 2014 13:13:32 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/?p=35165#comment-95799Yes, our Nobel Peace Prize winning president and his toady political sycophants have been engaged in conflicts across the globe on a scale Rumsfeld could only imagine.
The reset with Russia? Going just fabulous now that the cold war is back on full steam ahead!
Libya we went from re-approachment to the death of our diplomatic staff and continuous robotic drone attacks against their people and an all but undeclared war (one of our many).

Syria: For the first time in US history we bomb them daily now too, but not everybody they want to yet. Undeclared war #2.

Iraq – After snatching defeat from the jaws of victory… We’re baaack! Undecalred war #3.

Afghanistan we still there only we are now losing that one too. Undeclared war # 4.
Yemen, While we bomb whom we want there, the Iranians are running amok and about to close the House of Saud’s last link to the open ocean. Undeclared war #5.

China AKA North Korea heavy. Feel like sailing the Fifth fleet between Taiwan and the mainland anymore?

Way to go team Billary Obama!

]]>By: WonderfulWorldhttp://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/10/20/obama-tests-u-s-democracy-by-waging-an-empires-continuous-wars/#comment-95782
Mon, 27 Oct 2014 07:58:30 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/?p=35165#comment-95782One should simply pause and think – if not for the United States than which nation state and what would be the alternative? Since the ascension of the United States at the end of World War II, the world has never been in a period of greater stability, wealth redistribution and creation (across and within national boundaries) lifting the poorest up to standards that only decades ago were considered impossible, and created a logistical, trade and information flow environment that has delivered and expanded communications, knowledge and the strengthening and growth of democracies worldwide.

No other nation state has had such a profound and positive impact on mankind in such a short period of time.

Does it err in its policies and ways? Absolutely. It is the perfect reflection of mankind’s imperfect self and capabilities.

]]>By: Heretic50http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/10/20/obama-tests-u-s-democracy-by-waging-an-empires-continuous-wars/#comment-95773
Mon, 27 Oct 2014 03:16:21 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/?p=35165#comment-95773This is a superb article, and only the blind are unable to see how true it is. America is (or was) defined by its Constitution, particularly the Bill of Rights. Without our founding principles, how are we any better than any other empire that existed before us?

We remained a relatively free country when the USSR had thousands of nukes pointed at us and had spies infesting our land. Do we currently face any threats worse than that? A bunch of guys in sandals running around with AK-47’s in the desert on the other side of the planet doesn’t qualify in my opinion. Neither does the occasional domestic terrorist attack, which is a very rare way to die in any case.

Speaking of the USSR: Many years ago, when I was growing up, I and others used to comment on how terrible the USSR was. We noted how the USSR had a constitution guaranteeing citizens’ rights but didn’t follow that constitution. How the USSR was constantly meddling in the affairs of other countries, creating client states where possible, and even invading other nations on flimsy pretexts. How Soviet police made up their own rules. How all the citizens were constantly spied upon. How peaceful protests would be brutally put down. How people could be simply “disappeared.” And so forth.

How is that much different from the US today? Every single one of those criticisms currently applies to modern America in some form or another. Yes, even the part about being “disappeared.” Anyone who doubts this ought to familiarize himself with the NDAA of 2012, which eliminated due process for anyone “suspected” of terrorist involvement. No court case needed, just the say-so of government officials.

We Americans love to crow about how “free” we are — about how “our troops fight for our freedom.” That’s all lies and feel-good propaganda. The “War on Drugs” and the “War on Terror” are the one-two punch that have destroyed most of our freedoms. We have nothing left but some amount of free speech and the ability to get good firearms, but even these are considered privileges rather than rights.

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”

William Pitt the Younger stated that long before any of us were even born, but it certainly applies to the modern USA — if this can even be called the “United States” anymore.

]]>By: wilhelmhttp://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/10/20/obama-tests-u-s-democracy-by-waging-an-empires-continuous-wars/#comment-95767
Mon, 27 Oct 2014 00:54:51 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/?p=35165#comment-95767scrambling to maintain an empire is the only ‘indispensability’ that US capital understands – a psychology that is purely subjective to the big banks, transnational corporations, and their fellow travelers.

several billion other people on the planet will argue just the opposite, as the daily news demonstrates.

Why do you people persist in repeating this stupid, stupid bit of tripe? Please stop. Please. Yes, we’re a Republic, but we’re also a democracy, if you define a democracy as a government that practices democracy. No, we are not a pure democracy. Neither is Canada, but they’re still considered a democracy. Neither is France, but they’re still considered a democracy. Neither is Great Britain, but they’re still considered a democracy. There are no pure democracies, but that doesn’t mean that democracies don’t exist. Most democracies (perhaps all) are representative democracies, like ours. We call our a Republic, but we’re still a democracy.

But I have to add this qualifier. Our government is set up as a form of democracy, but it’s morphed into something else. It’s neither a democracy nor the Republic our Founders envisioned. We are ruled by a kind of plutocracy. So if you really want to get semantically picky, we’re neither a democracy nor a Republic, at least not as our Founding Fathers envisioned.

]]>By: carnivalchaoshttp://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/10/20/obama-tests-u-s-democracy-by-waging-an-empires-continuous-wars/#comment-95760
Mon, 27 Oct 2014 00:12:54 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/?p=35165#comment-95760“…the United States is skimping on investment in educating its citizens.”
Think you can understate that just a little bit more? Skimping? They’re fleecing US citizens while fewer and fewer citizens can afford higher education. We’re under-educating our people. The American people no longer have a democracy. We play an “America’s Got Talent” game in choosing people to place in our government and then they compete for money from corporations and the wealthy. Those who bother to vote base their decision on party and name recognition. Politicians running for office don’t even bother saying what they’ll do once elected. Instead, they brag about their love of guns or how they’ll cut spending (but don’t bother saying what they’ll cut.) We need a revolution. In the meantime, donate to Lawrence Lessig’s Mayday PAC that only donates to candidates who pledge to fight corruption and support campaign finance reform.
]]>By: taotzuhttp://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/10/20/obama-tests-u-s-democracy-by-waging-an-empires-continuous-wars/#comment-95717
Sun, 26 Oct 2014 02:57:25 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/?p=35165#comment-95717the problem here is that the USA likes to play big, perhaps even believing it might be bigger than God in some way. my prognosis is that the USA will ultimately overstretch its forces much like the Romans did long ago, and end up being crushed by riots and civil strife, before a new system emerges also in the USA, a system that already shows promise of emergence here in Europe.

we’re tired of getting bullied by our bosses, tired of being slaves to our paychecks. this capitalism on which the USA is constructed must be reformed or removed if the USA is to hold stake in the real new world order, an order chaired by Christ, fuelled by national pride and bound together by global empathy and a longing to create change in the world at large.

why the USA is attempting world peace, if that is what they are attempting, through a western ideology such as democracy and market capitalism eludes me. we need pluralism and diversity of opinion in the High Council, not half-deceiptful preachings of freedom and superiority.

there is no domination in the new world, only cooperation.

]]>By: Sertoriushttp://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/10/20/obama-tests-u-s-democracy-by-waging-an-empires-continuous-wars/#comment-95697
Sat, 25 Oct 2014 17:03:23 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/?p=35165#comment-95697In War Truth is the First Casualty.
]]>By: ngc121629http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/10/20/obama-tests-u-s-democracy-by-waging-an-empires-continuous-wars/#comment-95538
Wed, 22 Oct 2014 21:20:36 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/?p=35165#comment-95538Mr Borsage’s comment “Being the ‘indispensable nation’ is killing American democracy”misses the mark by a wide margin.The wars in IRAQ and Afghanistan and the Balkans(and WW2)were not caused by American imperialism.
Some of the root causes were German jingoistic excessives and the results of being humiliated in WW1,and Balkan ethnic/ religious differences and outdated Muslim beliefs in which they have self imprisoned their own people in a deep well of poverty ignorance and lack of opportunity .

Of course there are many other contributing factors but my major point here is :The largest danger to countries is the over concentration of wealth in the industrial societies democratic and non democratic.

Symptoms abound e.g. the near collapse of the American and European banking systems (and the criminal bail out of the bankers who caused it “too big to fail”);abysmal unemployment in Europe…
These are the same systems that gave birth to Hitler and Stalin…..and the world slumbers